[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Design meeting

[David Farning]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sugar-devel-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org [mailto:sugar-devel-
> bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Gary C Martin
> Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 1:05 PM
> To: Sugar-dev Devel
> Cc: Christian Mark Schmidt
> Subject: [Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] Design meeting
> 
> Just a heads up that I don't think I can make it for a design meeting
tomorrow
> (Sunday 3rd). I'll read the logs if someone else wants to chair a meeting.
If
> not, hopefully we can try to get through some more agenda items Sunday
> 10th.

As you move forward on design agenda items -- I would like to stress the
importance of recognition and credit in the open source ecosystem. This
relates to the idea of creating an about icon on every activity.

In the current OLPC/Sugar ecosystem there are many individuals and
organizations that contribute to the body of work. One interesting example
is http://ceibaljam.org/drupal/?q=lista_proyectos the developers are
CeibalJam have been working diligently on a number of interesting
activities. 

Giving visible credit to individuals and organization that contribute is
crucial to helping those individuals and organizations establish their
individual identities and reputations. For example when one purchases a
book, the author is prominent. One does not need to look up the book title
on a website to learn the identity of the authors.

The stance that an about icon adds clutter to the UI is valid. In this
instance, the social needs of the ecosystem outweigh the importance of a
minimal interface.

Looked at from a slightly different angle -- consider the importance the
Sugar Labs, OLPC, Fedora, and now Activity Central place in locating their
identifying information within Sugar and the resulting software
distributions -- it is human nature.

Creating an about icon says, "We care about you as activity authors and
respect your work."

David